Dutch East India Company (Jan Pieterszoon Coen)
The Dutch East India Company led by Jan Pieterszoon Coen is a custom civilization mod by Vanadius, with contributions from JFD, Janboruta, Senshi, Urdnot and DarthKyofu. This mod requires Brave New World. Overview 'Dutch East India Company' The Dutch East India Company was a megacorporation founded by a government-directed amalgamation of several rival Dutch trading companies in the early 17th century. It was established on 20 March 1602, as a chartered company to trade with Mughal India during the period of proto-industrialization, from which 50% of textiles and 80% of silks were imported, chiefly from its most developed region known as Bengal Subah. In addition, the company traded with Indianised Southeast Asian countries when the Dutch government granted it a 21-year monopoly on the Dutch spice trade. It has been often labelled a trading company (i.e. a company of merchants who buy and sell goods produced by other people) or sometimes a shipping company. However, VOC was in fact a proto-conglomerate company, diversifying into multiple commercial and industrial activities such as international trade (especially intra-Asian trade), shipbuilding, and both production and trade of East Indian spices, Formosan sugarcane, and South African wine. The Company was a transcontinental employer and an early pioneer of outward foreign direct investment. In the early 1600s, by widely issuing bonds and shares of stock to the general public, VOC became the world's first formally listed public company. In other words, it was the first corporation to be listed on an official stock exchange. It was influential in the rise of corporate-led globalisation in the early modern period. It is said to be worth $7.9 trillion in today's value. Founded in 1602, the Dutch East India Company (VOC), the world's first formally listed public company, started off as a spice trader. In the same year, the VOC undertook the world's first recorded IPO. "Going public" enabled the company to raise the vast sum of 6.5 million guilders quickly. The VOC's institutional innovations and business practices laid the foundations for the rise of modern-day global corporations and capital markets that now dominate the world's economic systems, whether for good or bad. With its pioneering institutional innovations and powerful roles in global business history, the Company is often considered by many to be the forerunner of modern corporations. In many respects, modern-day corporations are all the 'direct descendants' of the VOC model. It was their 17th century institutional innovations and business practices that laid the foundations for the rise of giant global corporations in subsequent centuries – as a highly significant and formidable socio-politico-economic force of the modern-day world – to become the dominant factor in almost all economic systems today. They also served as the direct model for the organisational reconstruction of the English/British East India Company in 1657. The Company, for nearly 200 years of its existence (1602–1800), had effectively transformed itself from a corporate entity into a state or an empire in its own right. One of the most influential and best expertly researched business enterprises in history, the VOC's world has been the subject of a vast amount of literature that includes both fiction and nonfiction works. The company was historically an exemplary company-state rather than a pure for-profit corporation. Originally a government-backed military-commercial enterprise, the VOC was the wartime brainchild of leading Dutch republican statesman Johan van Oldenbarnevelt and the States-General. From its inception in 1602, the Company was not only a commercial enterprise but also effectively an instrument of war in the young Dutch Republic's revolutionary global war against the powerful Spanish Empire and Iberian Union (1579–1648). In 1619, the Company forcibly established a central position in the Javanese city of Jayakarta, changing the name to Batavia (modern-day Jakarta). Over the next two centuries the Company acquired additional ports as trading bases and safeguarded their interests by taking over surrounding territory. To guarantee its supply, the Company established positions in many countries and became an early pioneer of outward foreign direct investment. In its foreign colonies, the VOC possessed quasi-governmental powers, including the ability to wage war, imprison and execute convicts, negotiate treaties, strike its own coins, and establish colonies. With increasing importance of foreign posts, the Company is often considered the world's first true transnational corporation. Along with the Dutch West India Company (WIC/GWIC), the VOC was seen as the international arm of the Dutch Republic and the symbolic power of the Dutch Empire. To further its trade routes, the VOC-funded exploratory voyages, such as those led by Willem Janszoon (Duyfken), Henry Hudson (Halve Maen), and Abel Tasman, revealed largely unknown landmasses to the western world. In the Golden Age of Netherlandish cartography (c. 1570s–1670s), VOC navigators and cartographers helped shape geographical knowledge of the world as we know it today. Socio-economic changes in Europe, the shift in power balance, and less successful financial management resulted in a slow decline of the VOC between 1720 and 1799. After the financially disastrous Fourth Anglo-Dutch War (1780–1784), the company was nationalised in 1796, and finally dissolved in 1799. All assets were taken over by the government with VOC territories becoming Dutch government colonies. 'Jan Pieterszoon Coen' Jan Pieterszoon Coen was an officer of the Dutch East India Company (VOC) in the early 17th century, holding two terms as Governor-General of the Dutch East Indies. He was the founder of Batavia, capital of the Dutch East Indies. Renowned for providing the impulse that set the VOC on the path to dominance in the East Indies, Coen was long considered a national hero in the Netherlands. Coen was known for his strict governance and harsh criticism of people who did not share his views, especially towards subordinates, and was merciless towards his opponents. Consequently, since the independence of Indonesia he has been looked at in a much more critical light. 'Dawn of Man' "God Bless you, Jan Pieterszoon Coen. You are the founder of Batavia, center of the Asian spice trade for centuries and envy of fellow colonalists. In your role of Governor-General you greatly expanded the scope of the Dutch East India Company turning it into an independent realm in all but name. You secured the vital cloves monopoly of the Moluccas, both diplomatically and forcefully working to eliminate the British influence in the East Indies. Through your vision and determined efforts a previously unimagined amount of wealth flowed through Batavia and back to the Dutch Republic. You lay your strict but just hand over the East Indies, bringing Christ to the inhabitants of the Indies and leaving a divisive legacy, those who stood in your way being shown no mercy. After your death your vision continued, expanding to new markets such as Japan, India, and Persia, the majority of the East Indies ultimately coming under Dutch rule. Yet even so by the year 1800 the company was dissolved facing geopolitical changes and structural issues. Now new monopolistic ventures have arisen, in this time of economic opportunity your shareholders call for you to lead them to riches. Will you answer their call? Can you build a company that can stand the test of time?" 'Introduction: '"Welcome to the East Indies my friend, are you here to discuss the terms of our new trade contract?" 'Defeat: '"May you reach a righteous and miserable end." Unique Attributes Strategy Mod Support Full Credits List *Creator, XML, Art, Code: Vanadius *Art: Janboruta *Lua: JFD *Special Thanks: Senshi, DarthKyofu, Urdnot Category:Western Cultures Category:All Civilizations Category:Netherlands Category:Indonesia Category:Civilizations with Male leaders